Tie or spacer.



efs. MUMFORD.

TIE 0R SPACER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 15,1911.

Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

ATITORIVEV G-URDON S. MUMFOBD, 0i? GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK.

TIE OB SPACER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 2%, lltliW.

Application filed June 15, 1917. Serial No. 174,939.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, GURnoN SALTONSTALL MUMFoRn, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and resident of Garden City, in the county of Nassau and Stateof New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tiesor Spacers, of which the following is a specification.

lhis invention relates to ties and spacers for molding apparatusparticularly adapted for use in concrete construction work, but it issusceptible to other applications with slight modification.

It is well known that in practically all of the tie devices known to theprior art in which a threaded member engages a female thread,

such as turnbuckles, threaded couplings, and the like, the connectedmembers come to a full stop and the body of the coupling must transmitthe strain through its own section, practical to thin the body of thecoupling member after the critical center section is passed, thethickness of the Walls of the coupling or turnbuckle are determined bythe thickness required in the middle. In some classes of work viz.'wherestrain is not applied until after the connecting members are bolted thislimitation makes for weight and waste material. Again from the verynature of a cut thread such as is found in the prior art and commonpractice it is impossible to successfully make such threads without acertain amount of clearance being allowed for the engagement of the boltmember, which precludes any jamming action in the female thread whichwould tend to prevent the Working loose of the bolt from vibration orother causes. In all concrete work it is desirable to have aslittlemetal in contact with the outer surface of the wall as possible. all tiemembers that remain in the Wall are pure waste from and the element ofcost is a vital one. Further, the process of stamping and certain formsof spot-welding are the cheapest manufacturing processes known.

With this brief statement of'present conditions in mind, one of the obects of the present invention is to provide a simple and practicalspacer and tie particularly adapted for use in or with forms forerecting concrete Walls'and buildings or the like. A further "object isto provide a tie containing female threaded members in which the in itsentirety. As it is not Also in concrete worka structural point of viewthread or its equivalent is formed by a stamping process instead ofbeing cut in the metal, thereby permitting a great saving in thethickness of the metal required and also a saving in the cost offabrication. A further object is to provide a tie containing femalethreaded members of such character thatrthrough variations in the threada jamming action against the thread of the coacting bolt or male threadmay be obtained. A further object is to provide a tie member formedintegral with a female, threaded member in such fashion that the strainfrom the tie member is transmitted in increments or little by little tothe female threaded member throughout its whole extent. A further objectis to ,provide an economical tie member susceptible in manufacture ofgreat variation in length, but in which the femalethreaded members areconnected integrally with the tie portion when manufactured, thuseliminating mistakes, loss of time and labor, and making forstandardization. A further object is to provide a. spacer of maximumstiffness for the material used. A further object is to provide a spacerwith a minimum amount of material in contact with the outer surface ofthe wall. A further object is to provide a spacer which is also a tiemember. A further object is to provide a tie member for concrete formswhich will on the completion of the Work aflord permanent anchorages ofgreat strength. A further object is to provide a tie member of suchcharacter that the coacting bolts have their threaded portions protectedfrom contact with the concrete or plastic material.

Other objects will be in part obvious from the annexed drawings'and inpart indicated in connection therewith by the following analysis of thisinvention.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combination of parts and in the unique relations of the members and inthe relative proportioning and disposition thereof, all as morecompletely outlined herein.

To enable others skilled in the art so fully to comprehend theunderlying features thereof that they may embody the same by thenumerous modifications in structure and relation contemplated by thisinvention, drawings depicting a preferred form have been annexed as apart of this disclosure, and in such drawings, like characters ofreference denote-corresponding parts throughout all the views, in whichI Figure 1 is a transverse view partly in section of the apparatustogether with the side mold frames.

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus taken. along line 2, 2,in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along -line.3, 3 in Fig.2.

Fig. 4 is a planview of one of the intermittent, stamped threadcorrugations.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view along line 5, 5 in Fi Fig. 6.is anelevational view showing a modification of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and more particularlyto Fig. 1,6, 6 denotes the body portion of the device and consists of tworelatively straight pieces of metal preferably steel wire of a circularsection. These body members 6,6 are welded by the process known as spotwelding .to the terminal members 7, 8. These terminal members 7, 8 arealso spot welded together along and through their flat surfaces denotedby 9 Thus the members 6, 6, 7, 8, become one solid body to all intentsand purposes homogeneous and integral in the shape shown afterfabrication.

Members 7, and 8 are cut and stamped from a sheet of relatively thinmetal, prefer ably sheet steel. They are shaped into one large and twosmaller semicircles as shown in Fig. 2. The large semicircular sectionhas also stamped corrugations or indentations 10, 11 about itsperiphery. When members 7, and 8, are welded together as shown, thesestamped corrugationsform an intermittent thread which is adapted toreceive a threaded member, the bolt 12.

The stamped corrugations 10, are of a plain rectangular section, and sospaced as to ive the usual clearance for the coacting maIe or boltthread but the corrugations 11,- preferably placed at the inner end ofthe socket members 7 and 8, are of a wedge shaped section, Figs. 4,and-5. The effect of these corrugations 11 is to jam' the bolt thread.The action of screwing in the bolt forces the bolt thread between the-corruga-. tions or indentations 11, and forces the projecting angularpoints 13 slightly back on themselves, The reaction of the corrugations11 in'this manner gives a hard and fast grip on the bolt thread 14 whichprevents any working loose of the bolt through vibration.

' It is readily seen that the great latitude of design and ease of thestamping process renders it ractical and possible to fabricate a selflocl ing thread of this character. It is also seen that due to theconstruction of this device, the body members 6, 6 transmit their Strainevenly all along the periphery of the socket members 7, 8. This enablesthe walls of the socket members 7, 8, to be very thin, which not onlymakes for economy, but also makes it possible to stamp the necessarycorrugations 10, 11. Transverse shearing across the bolt member wouldnot affect the efficiency of the socket members 7, 8. Shearing along theflat-surfaces 9 is resisted by the double thickness of metal and isreadily prevented by merely lengthening the longitudinal dimension ofthe socket members 7, 8; which does not in the least affect the ease offabrication or economy of the stamping process. In the manufacture ofthis invention, the body members 6, 6 are cut to length,

the socket'members 7, 8 are stamped out in large quantities, and thewhole assembled and spot welded as required. In all other threadeddevices known to the prior art, it is necessary to thread the articleafter it has :been cut to length, but in this invention the threadedportion is prefabricated and applied to cut body members in a veryspeedy manner. This makes for standardization and great economies inmanufacture.

Referring back to Fig. 1, there is shown the inventionas applied totying and spacing concrete molds together before the casting ofconcrete. In this case it will be noted that the outer ends of thereceiving socket members 7, 8 project beyond the connection with thebody members 6, 6. This is for the purpose of keeping these portions asfar from the surface of the finished wall as possible, so that therewill be a minimum of metal at the wall surface. It will also be notedthat because of the distance of the body members 6, 6 one from the otherthe device has a relatively large radius of gyration and. is thereforevery stiff and is highly efficient as a spacer. The rigid condition ofthe ends of the body members 6, 6 due to welding also adds to thisvalue. The complete inclosing of the thread of the coacting bolt member12, tends to "prevent the rusting of the bolt threads. From the shape ofthe device it is seen that after the concrete is placed the inventionhere shown has great value as a permanent anchorage, as its resistanceto dis placement is entirely independent of the adone piece. bent backon itself to the receiving socket 7, 8, which is adapted to receive athreaded member 12: The uses to which the invention as shown in Fig. 6may be applied lit) , loss.

' in manufacture and vents any in connection with concrete moldingapparatus are so varied and so obvious that it is not believed necessaryto describe any specific application.

From the above description it has been seen that this, invention boards15, Fig. 1 at a predetermined dis tance from each other, that it tiesthem together securely, that it acts as a permanent anchorage of greatstrength, that there is a minimum of material in contact with the outersurface of the wall, and that the bolt member is prevented from contactwith the concrete. It is also seen that this invention substitutes acheaply stamped fabrication for expensive out threaded devices in thatportion of it which must be a permanent It is further seen that thecorrugated or indented thread of irregular section permits a selflocking thread action which preworking-loose of the coacting boltmembers. It is also apparent that'this in-, vention is capable of greatstandardization hence that it is extremely economical. It is furtherevident that the maximum of strength is obtained with a minimum ofmaterial as wire is the cheapest form of steel and the strongest inproportion to its cost, and the socket members from their verynature-must be of the thinnest sheet steel.

While only a few of the numerous applications of the present inventionhave herein been illustrated and described, it is believed that numerousothers will occur to those familiar with the art and the invention isnot to be limited to the specific applications herein shown.

From theabove it will be seen that the invention is simple and practicalin construction, cheap to manufacture and install, in short, is adaptedto accomplish, among others, all of the objects and advantages hereinset forth.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthis inven tion that others can by applying current knowledgereadilyadapt it for various applications without omitting certain featuresthat, from the standpoint of the prior art, fairly constitute essentialcharacteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention,and therefore such adaptations should and are intended to becomprehended within the meaning and range of equivalency of thefollowing claims.

holds the mold I claim: V

1. A unit for concrete work comprising a body portion consisting of tworelatively straight members joined integrally at their ends by socketmembersadapted to receive coacting-threaded bolt members.

2. A tie for concrete structures comprising a body portion including tworelatively straight members joined integrally at one end by a socketmember adapted to receive a coacting threaded bolt member.

3. A unit for concrete Work comprising a body portion consisting of twoconnecting members joined integrally at their ends by socket members,said socket members having projections arranged about their centralperiphery in such a manner as to form a helix or thread adapted toreceive coacting threaded members.

4. A unit for concrete Work comprising a body portion consisting of twoconnecting members joined integrally at their ends by socket members,said socket members having indentations arranged about their centralperiphery, said indentations being non-continuous and formed in isolatedunits in such a shape and position as to exert a locking or retainingaction on the thread of the coacting threaded members.

5. A unit for concrete work comprising a body portion consisting of twoconnecting members joined integrally at their ends by socket members,said socket members having indentations arranged about their centralsocket members having indentations arranged about their periphery insuch a manner as to form a helical thread adapted to receive threadedbolt members.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York thisfourteenth day of June A. D. 1917.

GrURDON S. MUMFORD.

Witnesses:

LILLIAN GULBRANSEN, HOWARD J. MANDELL.

